Macedonia between Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian and Greek national

aspirations, 1870–1912

Vladislav B. Sotirović
Mykolas Romeris University

During the second

half of the 19th c. and the
first half of the 20th c.
Macedonia was one of the
most disputable territories
and “apple of discord” at the
Balkan Peninsula. All
Macedonia‟s neighbors and
their national states set their
territorial aspirations to
Macedonia‟s territory as a
way to solve their own
national questions at this part
of the Balkans. They based
their claims on both ethno-
linguistic and historic rights
of their own nations.
Historic-geographic
Macedonia was the most
important and in fact the
crucial moot point in the
Balkans, where the Serbian,
Albanian Bulgarian, and
Greek nationalism were
interweaving and struggling
against each other.1
Particularly during the
period from the end of the
19th c. to the beginning of
the First World War within
the framework of the
territorial aspirations of the
states and nations that
emerged at the Balkans
following decay of the
Ottoman Empire the so-
called “Macedonian Question” was in fact the most urgent, hot and significant point of their
disagreements and frictions. In other words, the territory of Macedonia was the “cross-road” where
territorial claims and nationalism of east Balkan nations became interweaved and pointed out against

1
“Nationalism is political principle according to which political unity (i.e. state) should be overlapped with national unity
(i.e. nation)”, Gellner E., Nations et nationalisme, Paris: Editions Payot, 1989, p.13.

1 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

each other. National aspirations and disagreements with regard to Macedonia have been the crucial
reasons for final political split among the east Balkan states and nations and their participation at the
opposite sides during the Great War of 1914−1918.
The main research topics in this article we are going to deal with are:
National ideas of the Serbs, Albanians, Bulgarians and Greeks with regard to the
territory of Macedonia and its inhabitants,
Bulgarian Exarchate (1870), “San Stefano Bulgaria” (1878) and the “Macedonian
Question”, and
The “Macedonian Question” from the Berlin Congress (1878) to the outbreak of the
Balkan Wars (1912).
Problems with regard to the question of Macedonia between Serbian, Albanian, Bulgarian
and Greek national aspirations and diplomatic activities in this research article will cover the period
from the time of establishing of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870 (the name of the national Bulgarian
autocephalous church) established by the highest authorities of the Ottoman Empire to the beginning
of the Balkan Wars (1912).
Territory and people

The term Macedonia had different understandings throughout the history. During the time
of Alexander the Great (Alexander III of Macedon, 356−323, reign 336−323 B.C.), Kingdom of
Macedonia was considered to be an area encompassing present-day territories of Vardar, Aegean and
Pirin Macedonia, western Thrace, southern Serbia‟s province of Kosovo & Metochia and parts of
Albania and Epirus. According to Nicolaos K. Martis, in narrow geographical terms, ancient
Macedonia occupied the lands of southern parts of present-day Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia (without Skopje/Scupi) and the northern Greece up to the Mt. Olimpus and just before
the Maritza River.2 The Romans used the term of Macedonia for their province in the central Balkans
which incorporated and present-day Albania and in early Byzantine times Macedonia was a separate
theme, one of the Byzantine administrative provinces, but it was located in modern-time region of
Thrace. Finally, when the Ottomans conquered the biggest portion of the Balkan Peninsula in the 14th
c. Thrace was generally known as Macedonia. However, in a broader geographical sense under the
term of Macedonia it is considered mainly the territory extended from Mt. Shara and Skopje‟s Crna
Gora on the north-west, through Osogovo and Mt. Rila on the north, to Mt. Rhodope on the north-
east, to the Aegean Sea and the River Aliakmon (Bistritsa) on the south and finally to the beyond of
the Lakes of Prespa and Ochrida on the south-west. In this case the area of Macedonia covers a large
portion of the east-central parts of the Balkan Peninsula including the valley of the Vardar (Axios)
River, the Aegean littoral from a mouth of the Aliakmon River to a mouth of the Mesta River into
the Aegean Sea, the whole parts of the Ochrida and Prespa Lakes, and the city of
Salonica/Thessaloniki as an administrative, economic and cultural centre of the area.3
Macedonia associates with the names of Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great
(Alexander III of Macedon). However, Macedonia from 1371 to 1912 was a part of the Ottoman
Empire without its own administrative-provincial name (pashalik or vilayet). Once a central part of
the Ottoman Empire (in the 15th c.), during the peak of the glory of the Ottoman history (1521−1683)
Macedonia was in fact located on the empire‟s periphery. However, with declination of the Ottoman

2
Martis K. M., The Falsification of Macedonian History, Athens, 1984, p. 41.
3
MacDermott M., Freedom or Death. The Life of Gotsé Delchev, London & West Nyack. It is clear that a significant
portion of Albanian claimed ethnic space of present-day west FYR Macedonia is in fact historical part of geographic
Macedonia.

2 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

state in the 19th c. the territory of Macedonia emerged again as one of the crucial and central parts of
the Ottoman Empire. Political importance of Macedonia for the last years of the Ottoman history and
the initial period of the Republic of Turkey can be understood as we know two facts: 1. the centre of
the Young Turk revolution (1908) was located in this area in the city of Bitola or Monastir, and 2.
the father of modern Turkish state – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was born in Macedonian capital –
Thessaloniki (1881).4 As a result of national-political awakening of Serbs (in 1804), Greeks (in
1821) and Bulgarians (in 1878) in the 19th c. there were finally re-established their own national
states at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, irredentist claims by Serbs, Albanians,
Greeks and Bulgarians on the territories outside of their national states or Ottoman administrative-
provincial borders (in the case of Albanians) spawned a rivalry among them for the possession of
geographical-historic Macedonia in whole or in the parts. By the late 19th c. a competition of Serbs,
Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians for a dominance over the east-central portions of the Balkans
based on the ethnic and historic rights took the central place in their national struggles. The
“Macedonian Question” soon became the crucial standpoint of their national aspirations and
multiethnic Macedonia turned out to be a territory of the “apple of discord”.5
As regards to the term and territory of Macedonia a similar confused situation exists upon
Macedonia‟s inhabitants. The Ottoman ruled Macedonia had a mixed population where different
ethnic groups, languages and religions coexisted side by side even in the same villages and towns. It
was a typical agricultural region with more than 80% of its population as the peasants. It is estimated
that in 1895 on the area of geographic-historical Macedonia some 2,505,503 people were living. The
figure increased to 2,911,700 by 1904.6 According to Yugoslav historiography, around the year of
1900 there were in Vardar Macedonia some 908.904 inhabitants: 175.000 Turks, 88.000 Albanians
and the rest Christians.7 It is known that not all Muslims in Macedonia have been ethnolinguistic
Turks. Many of them actually were ethnic Albanians who were living chiefly around the city of
Skopje, along the marches bordering the Albanian highlands and across the plain around Bitola.
Genuine ethnolinguistic Turks, interspersed with some Circassians and other Turkic groups resettled
from the Central Asia in order to dilute local Balkan Christian population, lived in the cities as well
as along the river valleys. Muslim population was augmented in the late 19th c. by displaced
coreligionists from the former Ottoman possessions of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Bulgaria.
This new population was living primarily in Muslim, but sometimes also in religiously mixed
villages along the Rivers of Vardar and Struma and in extreme southeastern Macedonia. The
Macedonian Slavic population who adopted Islam was living in villages in the extreme eastern and
western areas of Macedonia. Orthodox Greeks were inhabitants of the major trading centers. In the
course of the 19th c. the majority of the Balkan merchants have been the Greeks, who also were
sailors, fishermen and peasants. The Vlachs or Aromani were living mostly in the Pindus area and in
several trading centers. Vlachs were linguistically as well as historically very tied to the Romanians.
This fact actually gave a reason to the Romanians to claim parts of Macedonia. However, many of
the Vlachs were quite Hellenised and often were presented themselves as the Greeks at least because

4
About this period of Ottoman/Turkish history see: Hammer von J., Historija Turskog/Osmanskog/Carstva, vol. 3,
Zagreb, 1979, pp. 500−568. The (constitutional) revolution of July 1908 was the result of the military actions of the
Ottoman officers belonged to the Unionist movement of the Third (Macedonian) and Second (Thracian) Army (Zürcher
J. E., Turkey. A Modern History, London-New York: I. B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 1994, p. 97).
5
The “Macedonian Question” was composed by three sub-questions: 1. What territory constituted Macedonia? To which
state or states it should belong? and 3. What was a national affiliation of the peoples from Macedonia? (Perry D. M., The
Politics of Terror. The Macedonian Liberation Movements 1893−1903, Durham and London, 1988, p. 2; Adanir F., Die
Makedonische Frage: Ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung bis 1908, Wiesbaden, 1979).
6
Shaw S. J. and Shaw E. K., History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, vol. II, Cambridge, 1976−1977, p. 208.
7
Božić I., Ćirković S., Ekmeĉić M., Dedijer V., Istorija Jugoslavije, Beograd, 1973, p. 289.

3 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

of linguistic reason.8 The Jews inhabited the urban areas, particularly the city of
Thessaloniki/Salonica. Around 1900 only in Salonica approximately 80,000 Jews have been living,
making them the dominant community of the city. In addition to Salonica, they could be found also
in Macedonia‟s towns of Bitola/Monastir, Shtip, Kostur, etc.9 The Gypsies constituted a small
minority in the 19th c. in Macedonia and lived largely on the outskirts of the cities and towns
(especially Skopje) because the Ottoman law forbade them to reside in the urban settlements. They
were living in fact on the periphery of society and have been in general tolerated by all.
Christian Orthodox Slavic speaking population constituted the majority of Macedonia‟s
population. They were primarily illiterate peasants and lived in most parts of geographic-historic
Macedonia, either in completely Slavic or in mixed ethnic and religious communities. A proper
national identity of Orthodox Slavic speakers of Macedonia became the main reason of national
struggles between Serbs, Bulgarians and Greeks. Alongside with the question of historical heritage
of antique Macedonian Kingdom, the national identity of Orthodox Slavic speaking population in
Macedonia, from the mid 19th c. became a crucial source and basis for territorial aspirations over
Macedonia by Serbs, Bulgarians and Greeks. At the turn of the 20th c. Slavs who populated the fringe
areas of Macedonia, along the Ottoman border with Serbia and scattered villages in western
Macedonia as far south as Struga, Ochrida and Bitola claimed to be the Serbs. Serbian philologist
Vuk Stefanović-Karadžić, for example, heard in 1834 by some merchants that there are around
Debar and Kiĉevo in Macedonia 300 Serbian villages, but the language of those people was “Slavic
language”.10 Vuk set up a theses in 1834 that it was unknown yet were had been boundaries of the
Serbian population in Albania and Macedonia (in Arnautska and Maćedonia),11 as well as that in the
southeastern regions of Macedonia the boundaries between Serbian and Bulgarian language were not
exactly defined. However, in reality, many Christian Orthodox Slavs who lived in Macedonia near
the border with Bulgaria tended to identify themselves as ethnolinguistic Bulgarians.12 Some of them
who inhabited the Greek frontier with the Ottoman Empire considered themselves to be the Greeks.
Religious affiliation was for many of them a basis of ethnic identity.
Foreign diplomats, travelers and scholars who visited or lived in Macedonia during the 19th
c. and in the early 20th c. usually designated the Slavic speaking population of Macedonia as
Bulgarian one.13 Sami-bey Frashëri, an Albanian geographer, referred to the Slavs of Macedonia as
Bulgarians, as did various Bulgarian scholars and travelers. He at the same time, in his famous book:
Albania: What She Has Been, What She Is, What She Shall Be? (original in German, 1899), bitterly
protested against the identification of Albanian Muslims, either in Macedonia or Albania, Kosovo &
Metochia, as the Turks and Albanian Christian Orthodox population as the Roums. He as well
resented the Greek attempts to Hellenize and thus separate Albanian Orthodox population from the
rest of Albanians and Albania in order that Greece will annex Toskëria (Southern Albania).14
However, the Serbs, like M. J. Andonović and Tihomir ĐorĊević, considered them to be originally
the Serbs, while the Greeks like Cleanthes Nicolaides called them the Greeks.15 There were also a
8
According to Hugh Poulton, “Studies in the 1930s recorded 3000 to 4000 Vlahs in Bitola, 2000 to 3000 in Skopje and
1500 in Krusevo which was predominantly Vlah at the time” (Poulton H., The Balkans. Minorities and States in Conflict,
London, 1994, p. 96).
9
Мезан С., „Евреството в Македонииа“, Македонски преглед, 6, 1930, p. 78.
10
Стојанчевић В., „Једна неиспуњена жеља Вукова“, Ковчежић, 12, Београд, 1974, pp. 74−77.
11
Vuk comprehended under the term “Arnautska” and Kosovo and Metochia.
12
Bulgarian collection of documents upon ethnolinguistic identity of Macedonian Slavs is presented in: Macedonia.
Documents and Material, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, Bulgarian Language Institute (ed.), Sofia,
1978.
13
Smith A. H., Fighting the Turk in the Balkans: An American's Adventures with the Macedonian Revolutionists, New
York, 1908, p. 3; Lady Grogan, The Life of J. D. Bouchier, London, 1926, p. 117, and others.
14
Frascheri S. B., Was war Albanien, was ist es, was wird es werden?, Wien, Leipzig, 1913, pp. 29−30.
15
Sami-bey Frasheri, Dictionnaire universelle d' histoire et geographe, I−IV, 1889−1898; Андоновић М. Ј.,
Македонски су Словени Срби, Београд, 1913; Georgewitch T., Macedonia, London, 1918.

4 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

few people who shared opinion that Macedonia‟s Slavs have been from a national-identity point of
view an “amorphous mass of people” - neither Bulgarian nor Greek nor Serbian yet.16
An ethnolinguistic and ethnic minority situation in Ottoman Macedonia was one of the most
complex within the whole region of the Balkan Peninsula. Macedonia was the last Balkan region to
be liberated from Ottoman authority and to be incorporated into Balkan successor states after the
Ottomans lost almost all their European/Balkan territorial possessions at the beginning of the 20th c.
(1912−1913) Finally, according to the censuses of Ottoman citizens done during the realm of Grand
Sultan and Caliph Abdul Hamid II (1876−1909), there was an equal number of Muslim and Christian
population in Macedonia as it can be seen from the next table:
Macedonian population, 1882-1906
1882 1895 1904 1906
Muslims 1,083.130 1,137.315 1,508.507 1,145.849
Greeks 534.396 603.249 307.000 623.197
(Orthodox)
Bulgarians 704.574 692.742 796.479 626.715
(Orthodox)
Greek 2.311 3.315 No data 2.928
Catholics
Vlachs No data No data 99.000 26.042
(Orhodox)
Serbs No data No data 100.717 No data
(Orthodox)
Jews and 151.730 68.432 99.997 30.594
others
Total 2,476.141 2,505.503 2,911.700 2,455.325

The Ottoman census of 1905 regarding the main part of Macedonia is giving an exaggerated
number of Muslim population including and Albanians, but it can be useful to estimate the relative
number of Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians, reckoned on the religious bases but not on the linguistic
one:
Macedonian Christian population in 1905
Orthodox Greeks 648,962
Orthodox Bulgarians 557,734
Orthodox Serbs 167,601

Elisabeth Barker is in opinion that 50% of the estimated number of “Orthodox Greeks” have
been in fact ethnic Slavs but who lived under the jurisdiction of the Greek Patriarchate in
Constantinople. Nevertheless, dominance of Bulgarians over Serbs is clearly visible.17
We have to stress that from the time of the Ottoman regime there is no reliable statistics
with regard to Macedonia‟s population. Substantial changes in numbers of Macedonia‟s inhabitants
are caused by the Balkan Wars 1912−1913. According to the British Foreign Office‟s (London)

16
Cvijić J., Remarks on the Ethnography of the Macedonian Slavs, London, 1906; Hron K., Das Volkstum der Slawen
Makedoniens, 1890, reprint Skopje, 1966.
17
Pettifer J., The New Macedonian Question, New York, 2001, p. 6.

5 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

papers and documents (including and reports from Macedonia) from 1918 it can be concluded that
just before the First Balkan War started (October 1912) estimated number (rough approximation) of
total Macedonia‟s populations was as following:

Macedonia’s total population in autumn of 1912

Slavs 1,150.000
Turks 400,000
Greeks 300,000
Vlachs 200,000
Albanians 120,000
Jews 100,000
Gypsies 10,000

Among all nations living in Macedonia (and the Balkans) only the Albanians had (wrong
and politicized) claim to be autochthonous people in this region.18 The southern Albanian tribes – the
Tosks – are believed to be the lineal descendants of the ancient region of Epirus. However, their
northern compatriots – the Ghegs – are wrongly claiming to be descendants of Antique Illyrians who
in fact are most probably the Slavic Serbs as the only aboriginal Balkan inhabitants.19

Macedonia and national aspirations by the Serbs, Bulgarians, Albanians and Greeks

National aspirations towards the territory of geographic-historic Macedonia and her

inhabitants by the Serbs, Albanians, Bulgarians and Greeks from 1878 to 1912 are based on two
crucial rights: historic and ethnic ones. All of them claimed that from historical point of view
Macedonia in whole, or some of her regions, have been parts of their own national states in the past -
in the Middle Ages before Ottoman occupation of the Balkans. They also declared that from ethnic
point of view the inhabitants of Macedonia were actually their ethnic and cultural compatriots who
spoke a special dialect of their own national language. Finally, all Macedonia‟s neighbors have been
constantly pretending to prove and convince the great European powers that their historical and
ethnolinguistic rights are deeper, stronger and more justifiable in comparison to the same rights
claimed by the others.20
Greek case
The Greeks were the strongest legitimists upon the territory and peoples of Macedonia. The
Bulgarians asserted that the Macedonians were Slavs speaking west-Bulgarian dialect and for that

18
According to several reliable Byzantine and other mediaeval sources, Balkan Albanians came to Europe - island of
Sicily - from the Caucasus‟ Albania in the 9th c. In the year of 1043 they emigrated from Sicily to present-day central
Albania (ex. Ataliota M., Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, Weber, Bonn, 1853, p. 18). This fact is recognized
and by Albanian historians Stefang Pollo and Arben Puto (Pollo S., Puto A., The History of Albania, London, Boston,
Hebley: Routledge & Kegan, 1981, p. 37).
19
Деретић И. Ј., Антић П. Д., Јарчевић М. С., Измишљено досељавање Срба, Београд: Сардонија, 2009.
20
Probably, the best example of this “fight of rights” is Bulgarian-Serbian case from 1913 when both sides sent to Paris
separate ethnographical maps of Macedonia done by respected academicians. Bulgarian point of view was presented by
Vasil Kanchov‟s map (all Macedonia‟s Slavs are ethnic Bulgarians) while Serbian point was represented by Jovan
Cvijić‟s map (Macedonia‟s Slavs are composed by “Serbo-Croats”, Bulgarians and “Slavs of Macedonia”). Both maps
are printed as appendices in: International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars, The
other Balkan wars: 1914 Carnegie Endowment Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and
Conduct of the Balkan Wars/introduction with reflections on the present conflict by George F. Kennan, Carnegie
Endowment for international peace, Washington, 1993.

6 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

reason they are ethnic Bulgarians. However, the Greek propaganda was more developed at the
beginning of the work of agitation. Actually, the Greek propaganda went into abstractions because it
operated with the term “Hellenism”.21 The Greek thesis was that Macedonia belonged already during
the time of the Alexander the Great to Hellenistic cultural-linguistic sphere of influence.22 The
reason why Hellenism was chosen instead of the Greek basis we can understand if we know that in
classical times the Greeks, like Demosthenes (384−322 B.C.), considered the Macedonians as
barbarians and anyway not as the Greeks. In addition, the Greeks of the classical ancient history had
only a few isolated colonies on the Macedonian coast. Aristotle (384−322 B.C.) became a crucial
connection link between the Greekdom and Hellenism, as chosen form of propaganda - a philosopher
who won Kingdom of Macedonia for Hellenism when he gave lessons to Philip‟s son, Alexander
(later “the Great”). Greek theory in dealing with the period of Philip of Macedon and Alexander the
Great included both of them into the Greekdom as a consequence of two historical facts: 1. the royal
family of Macedon perceived itself as Greek in culture, and 2. Macedonian nobility was in

intellectual and cultural points of view completely Hellenized. In short, a matter of spiritual life was
taken into consideration as a crucial point of determination of the Greek nationhood.
The next step in formulation of Greek claims over Macedonia was to link Hellenism, which
had actually Athenian cultural background, with the Byzantine Empire (330−1453) – a medieval
universal empire proclaimed by Greek historians to be a Greek national state in the Middle Ages.
Regardless the fact that during ten centuries of Byzantine history Macedonia was ruled not
exclusively by Constantinople but also by foreigners as Serbian and Bulgarian kings and emperors
and even by the Frankish (Latin) kings (during some periods of the Latin Empire, 1204−1261), for
Greek propaganda legitimate overlord upon Macedonia was only Byzantium, and Byzantium had

21
Brailsford H. N., Macedonia. Its Races and their Future, New York, 1971, p. 194.
22
See, for instance, the book The Falsification of Macedonian History, Athens, 1984, written by Nicolaos K. Martis,
especially pp. 20−53.

7 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

been claimed as a Greek national state as an official language was Greek one and cultural life was
based on Hellenism.23 A whole period of Byzantine history was always considered as the part of the
Greek national history. A chief propagator of Hellenistic culture during the Byzantine period and
even later became Greek Orthodox Church (with a headquarters in Constantinople). This institution
Hellenized and de facto civilized the people under its own administrative jurisdiction and influence
like some Macedonian Slavs, Albanians from Western Macedonia, Southern Albania and Northern
Epirus and Vlachs who became in the course of time “Hellenized” Greeks. The Greek Orthodox
Church actually became a principal link between ancient and mediaeval Greek history and culture in
which Hellenism was a most significant and remarkable “national” point. It is a fact that the first
Turkish sultans destroyed the Byzantine Empire and its administrative and social system (after 1453)
but at the same time they gladly tolerated the Greek Orthodox Church 24 till 1821 when started
“Greek Revolution and War of Independence”.
A centre of Greek Patriarchate was a Phanar, a “Greek” quarter in Constantinople/Istanbul,
where a new Greek aristocracy emerged. The so-called “Phanariots” (Phanar‟s Greeks) were always
chosen to govern Moldavia and Wallachia from the beginning of the 18th c. until 182125, and they
have been in position of “dragomans” of the Sublime Porte and Ottoman fleet.26 A higher
ecclesiastical clergy in Macedonia, particularly in the central part of this region, were Phanariot-
Greeks who in fact conducted the affairs of the Orthodox Church in the area as Macedonia
exclusively belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church in Constantinople till 1870. They finally
extinguished Serbian Patriarchate of Peć (in Turkish Ipek – a town in Metochia) in 1766 and
Bulgarian Partiarchate of Ochrida in 1767 and replaced completely higher Orthodox clergy with
Phanariot-Greek speaking priests. Subsequently, from 1766/1767 till 1870 Greek language was a
language of the church within the whole territory of historic-geographic Macedonia. However, even
before 1766/1767 many of the most significant hierarchical posts in Orthodox Church on the territory
of Macedonia and Eastern Balkans have been given to the Greeks, and their power was
unquestionable by Sublime Porte until the early decades of the 19th c. when the “Greek Revolution
and War of Independence” (1821−1829) took place and caused the Ottoman central authority to
suspect the loyalty of their Phanariot-Greek civil servants. Nevertheless, during the main part of the
Ottoman rule Macedonia and her Christian believers27 have been placed under ecclesiastical
jurisdiction and control by the Phanariot-Greeks and their Patriarchate in Constantinople (till 1870).
When Slavic (Serbian and Bulgarian) church organizations disappeared from Macedonia
“everywhere the Greek Bishops, as intolerant as they were corrupt crushed out the national
consciousness, the language and the intellectual life of their Slav flocks”.28 Under Phanariot‟s
conducting of the church affairs the official church language became the Greek one, i.e. a language
on which the church service was held. Slavic letters were forbidden, and even Slavic libraries in the

23
The fact is that although the Latin West recognized the Byzantine claim to the antique Roman legacy for several
centuries, after Roman-Catholic Pope Leo III (795−816) crowned Charles the Great, king of the Franks, as the “Roman
Emperor” on December 25th, 800, an act which eventually led to the formation of the Holy Roman Empire (962−1806),
the Latin West started to favour the Franks and began to refer to the Byzantium or the “Eastern Roman Empire” largely
as the Empire of the Greeks (Imperium Graecorum) (Royal Historical Society, Transactions of the Royal Historical
Society: Sixth Series. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001, p. 75). However, Byzantium was overwhelmingly
multinational with ethnic Greeks as a minority.
24
Stavrianos L. S., The Balkans since 1443, New York, 1958, pp. 59−62.
25
Treptow W. K. (ed.), A History of Romania, The Center for Romanian Studies, The Romanian Cultural Foundation,
Iaşi, 1996, pp. 203−211.
26
Поповић В., Источно питање, Београд 1928, see chapter „Унутрашње пропадање Турске и буђење Хришћана
крајем XVI и почетком XVII века”, pp. 61−67; Castellan G., History of the Balkans From Mohammed the Conqueror
to Stalin, New York, 1992, pp. 145−155, 248−263.
27
It is no matter what their native language or ethnic background are: all of them are classified by the Ottoman
authorities as the “Greeks” since the Ottomans divided their subjects according to the confession (milet system).
28
Brailsford H. N., Macedonia. Its Races and their Future, New York, 1971, p. 196.

8 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

old monasteries were burned by the Greek bishops. As a result, the process of Hellenization in
Macedonia has been continuing and at the same time became the most significant point for the Greek
claims to Macedonia, her culture and people.29 The Greeks also claimed that the Eastern Christian
(Orthodox) Church was Greek one and for three centuries in fact they monopolized the culture of the
Eastern Balkans. All in all, for the Greek ecclesiastical hierarchy, as well as for the Greek national
propaganda, all Macedonia‟s Orthodox population has been the Greek for the very reason the
Orthodox believers in Macedonia have been the tributaries of the Greek Patriarchate in
Constantinople.
The framework of Greek nationalism and “rights” to Macedonia was finally shaped when
Greek intellectuals adopted Giuseppe Mazzini‟s (“Soul of Italy”, 1805−1872) idealistic nationalism
that nationality is a spiritual but not an ethnological fact. Accordingly, all Macedonian population
who used the Greek language, at least in scientific or cultural purposes, and who was under the
Greek cultural influence, belonged intellectually-spiritually to the Greekdom.30 In other words, all
Macedonia‟s Hellenized population was claimed as the Greek one what means that Hellenism played
a crucial cultural role on the Balkans in the Greek eyes. Generally, Greek “Megali Idea”, a concept
of the re-creation of the Byzantine Empire as “Megala Hellada”, claimed Macedonia to the
Greekdom on the basis of history (historical rights) as well as on the basis of culture (spiritual life
and language), in one word on the basis of Hellenism.31
A definition of the territory of Macedonia for Greek propaganda meant in majority of cases
two Ottoman vilayets: Vilayet of Salonika (Salonica/Thessaloniki) and Vilajet of Monastir (Bitolj/
Bitola). The later included purely Albanian districts of Elbasan and Koritza (Korçë), where many
Christians, although they attended Greek Orthodox schools, have been actually ethnic Albanians.
However, modern Greek vision of Macedonia excludes the Vilayet of Skopje because a few number
of Greek families lived there. It was with the exception of Albanian- and Serb-language speakers in
the west entirely populated by Macedonia‟s Slavs whose language was mostly similar to Bulgarian
one.
Bulgarian case
Bulgarian propaganda and claims upon Macedonia had two aspects and levels of
requirements. First of them was a historical, in the other words state rights upon Macedonia while the
second one was ethnolinguistic concerning the Slavic people of Macedonia as etnolinguistic
Bulgarians who have been speaking “western” (i.e. Macedonian) dialect of Bulgarian language.
“Historical rights” to the area of Macedonia in Bulgarian claims, including also and
Albanian populated Western Macedonia, can be traced from the year of 864 when the land of
Macedonia was given to Bulgarian khan/prince Boris I (852−889) as a gift for his adoption of the
Christianity from Constantinople. Macedonia was later put under jurisdiction of the independent
Bulgarian Orthodox Church. However, Bulgarian theory was going deeply into the past than it was
the case with the year of 864 as it took into consideration and several very disputable information
given by Byzantine historians with regard to the Slavic attacks on the Balkan Peninsula (the 6th c.),
their settlement in the Balkans (the 6th c.), or settlement of the Proto-Bulgars Maurus and Kouber in
Bitola plain (the 7th c.). In addition, according to Bulgarian academia, it is important to notice the

29
See, for instance: Haus-Hof-und Staatsarchiv, Politishes Archiv, Wien, “Circular letter in Greek language, addressed
by Greek Archbiship Philaretos to the priests and the population of Vakouphokhōria, Koritsa”, September 20 th, 1892,
XIV/21, Albanien XIII/18.
30
Using this model of spiritual-cultural nationdom the Italians claimed after the Italian unification in 1861 all Italian-
speaking population of Istria, Dalmatia and Adriatic islands as “Italians” including and their Italian-language written
culture as “Italian”.
31
See more about “Megali Idea” in 3rd chapter under the headline “Nation building, the „Great Idea‟ and National Schism
1831−1922” in Clogg R., A Concise History of Greece, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992, pp. 47−99.

9 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

cases of paying taxes to “Bulgarian” (i.e., Scythian) people by some inhabitants on the plain of
Salonica (the 9th – 10th cc.)32. Bulgarian historiography claimed that cultural mission in Macedonia
by Kliment, Nahum and Angelarius was their own national one likewise the famous Literary School
in Ochrida only on the basis that these pupils of “Slavic apostles”, the Greeks Cyril and Methodius,
were sent to Macedonia by Bulgarian ruler Boris I. In addition, one of the most important
monasteries in Macedonia, in Ochrida, was claimed to be national Bulgarian one taking into
consideration the historical fact that the monastery and church were built in Ochrida on the orders by
Bulgarian prince Boris I (the 10th c.).33 It is extremely important to note that at the turn of the 20th c.
a wider hinterland of Ochrida (Ohrid) was settled by significant number of ethnic Albanians and that
this area was considered by Albanian nationalists since the time of the First League of Prizren (1878)
as exclusively Albanian national land as a part of Greater (united) Albania. As a result, both
Bulgarian and Albanian, but followed also and by Serbian and Greek, nationalists claimed the area of
Ochrida as their own national territory that had to be incorporated into the national state of their own.
A basic requirement of the First League of Prizren, or Albanian League, existed from 1878
to 1881, which at the same time became the main political program for the following generations of
Albanian political-national workers and ideologists, was that four vilayets of Bitola, Ioanina, Scodra,
and Kosovo (with Metochia) have to compose single united “Albanian vilayet”, or a greater Albania
within the borders of the Ottoman Empire. The League‟s statute called “Kararname” (“The Book of
Decisions”) drafted the borders of Albanian national pretensions that included and significant parts
of geographic and historic Macedonia.34 However, the ethnolinguistic situation in these four vilayets,
according to German scholar Schanderl, was as it is shown in the table (i.e., Albanians did not have
an absolute majority):
Population of Ioanina, Bitola, Kosovo and Scutari vilayets from 1877 to
1908 (in percentage):
Albanians 44%
Macedonian Slavs 19,2%
Serbs 11,4%
Greeks 9,2%
Vlachs 6,5%
Turks Osmanli 9,3%
Jews, Armenians and Gypsies 0,4%

The same author claims that Macedonian confessional situation was as follows:

32
“Information from Procopius Ceasarienses about a Slav attack on the Balkan Peninsula, in the region of Niš and
Thessalonica”, p. 19, “Information from John of Ephesus on the settlement of Slavs in the Balkan Peninsula”, p. 20,
“Information about the miracle of St Demetrius of Thessalonica and the settlement of the Proto-Bulgars Maurus and
Kouber in the Bitola plain”, p. 21, “Information from the Byzantine writer Ioannes Cameniata about some settlements on
the plain of Thessalonica paying taxes to the Bulgarian people”, p. 22 in Bulgarian Academy of Science, Macedonia.
Documents and Material, Sofia 1978.
33
ibid, “Excerpt from the second Life of Nahum concerning the arrival of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius in the
Bulgarian lands, and the big monastery and church built by Nahum in Ohrid on the orders of the Bulgarian Tsar Boris”,
p. 22; Bulgarian Academy of Science, Information Bulgaria. A short encyclopedia of the People's Republic of Bulgaria,
Oxford, New York, Toronto, Sydney, Paris, Frankfurt, 1985, p. 153.
34
Бартл П., Албанци. Од средњег века до данас, Београд: CLIO, 2001, pp. 94−97.

10 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

 Confessional distribution in Ottoman vilayets of Ioanina, Kosovo, Scutari and
Bitola, 1877 – 1908 (in percentage):

Orthodox 27,8%
Muslims 52,8%
Roman Catholics 15%

At the same time, Schandler claims that there were 77% of Albanian Muslims out of total
Albanian folk in these four Ottoman vilayets.35 Three of them – Scodra, Ioanina and Bitola – were
created in 1865 while fourth – Kosovo – later on. Each of these four vilayets had a large population
of the other, non-Albanian, nationalities. However, since the majority of Albanian population was
Muslim one, the central Ottoman authorities regarded them as the Ottomans.
An extension of Albanian territorial pretensions on Ancient Serbia and Macedonia, on the
territories where Albanian population was not in majority, was one of the crucial sources for frictions
and struggling between Albanian political organizations on the one hand and two Serbian
independent states, Montenegro and Serbia, on the other one. According to the programs of both
Albanian leagues, that is of Prizren and Ipek (Peć), a new Albanian either autonomous province
within the Ottoman Empire or ultimately independent state had to consists four principalities: I)
Southern Albania with Epirus and the city of Ioanina, II) Northern and Central Albania with the
areas around Scodra (Scutari), Tirana (Tiranё) and Elbasan, III) Macedonia with the cities of Debar,
Skopje, Gostivar, Prilep, Veles, Bitola and Ohrid, and IV) “Ancient Serbia” (Kosovo & Metochia,
Raška/Sandžak and Vardar Macedonia) with the cities/towns of Prizren, Gnjilane, Peć, Đakovica,
Mitrovica, Priština, Kumanovo, Novi Pazar and Sjenica.36 The decesions of international community
concerning the Balkan affairs contributed as well to the interethnic frictions between Albanians and
their neighbours at the turn of the 20th c. Both international treaties from 1878, San Stefano and
Berlin, handed over certain lands populated by Albanians at that time to the other states. According
to Albanian historiography, an inability of Ottoman government to protect Albanian interests, who
have been 70% of Muslim faith and mainly loyal Ottoman subjects,37 compelled Albanians from
Kosovo & Metochia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Epirus, to organize themselves for national
defence and to require the status of autonomous administration of united Albanian province within a
total ethnolinguistic space of Albanians. Albanian feudal aristocracy opposed the Sultan's
(Abdülmecid, 1839−1861) programme of reforms – Tanzimat (meaning „reorganization“), likewise
Bosnian-Herzegovinian nobles of Muslim faith.38 Both of them resented officials sent to their
provinces from Istanbul preffering to be governed by their own administrations composed by local
Muslim feudal lords - begs. Albanians and Bosnian-Herzegovinian Muslims as well did not support
military reforms based on general recruitment for the purpose to create a modern and more effective
Ottoman army. Albanians wished to retain traditional procedures of recruitment and to be led in the
battles by their own military leaders.
Bulgarian theory upon Macedonia‟s national identity overwhelmingly accepted and stressed
the fact that Macedonia was inside the borders of Bulgarian state enlarged by the first Bulgarian
Emperor, Simeon (893−927). Within a framework of Bulgarian claims with regard to the question of
Macedonia‟s identity during the time of the Middle Ages the cases of Emperor Samuilo and Ivan
Vladislav are the most disputable. According to Bulgarian historiography, “Samuilo‟s Uprising”,

35
Schanderl H-D., Die Albanienpolitik Österreich Ungarns und Italiens 1877−1908, Wiesbaden, 1971, pp. 9−10.
36
Stuli B., Albansko pitanje 1878−1882, Rad JAZU, 318, Zagreb, 1959, pp. 321−323.
37
The Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1876−1909) had very high opinion about a loyalty of Muslim Albanians. For that reason,
Sultan‟s personal body-guard was made primarily by Muslim Albanians.
38
Popović V., Istočno pitanje, Beograd, 1928, pp. 146−149.

11 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

976−1014, was Bulgarian national rebellion.39 The theory is founded on the fact that these two
Emperors have been noblemen of Bulgarian origin.40 Moreover, their state was understood by
Bulgarian academia as the last Bulgarian independent state after the conquest of the core Bulgaria by
Byzantium in 971. A newly established Byzantine Archbishopric of Ochrida in 1018, by Byzantine
Emperor Basil II (“Killer of Bulgarians”, 976−1025), is considered also as Bulgarian national church
and called by Bulgarian nationalists as the Archbishopric of Bulgaria.41 It is a fact that among
Bulgarian nationalists and nationalistic propaganda upon Macedonia the Archbishopric of Ochrida
was always understood as Bulgarian and its Archbishop as the Archbishop of Bulgaria. However, the
cases of two “Bulgarian” uprisings against the Byzantine authorities in the 11th century under the
leadership of Peter Delyan (1040−1041) and Georgi Voyteh (1072) are also very problematic with
regard to Bulgarian claims upon Macedonia and her Slavic inhabitants.42
Bulgarian territorial-national aspirations upon Macedonia in the modern time basically have
been derived from two historical events relating to the 19th c. Bulgarian history:
an establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870 by the Ottoman Sultan, and
a creation of the Great Bulgaria in 1878 according to the “St. Stefano peace treaty” by
the Russian authorities.
One of the most considerable goals of Bulgarian struggle for liberation from the Ottoman
rule was to gain independence for the national church from the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople.
In fact, the movement for creation of the Bulgarian independent Church was enormous strengthened
by the resentment caused by the Sultan‟s abolition of the Patriarchate of Ochrida, which covered the
dioceses of Macedonia and Western Bulgaria. The Patriarchate or Archbishopric of Ochrida was
always understood by Bulgarian authority as Bulgarian national church. Nevertheless, both
establishment of (Ottoman) Bulgarian Exarchate and creation of (Russian) Greater Bulgaria affected
directly Greek, Serbian and Albanian national aspirations, plans and struggles for united national
state of their own.
Bulgarian struggle for independent national church was achieved when Ottoman Sultan
issued a special firman (Sultan‟s decree) on March 11th, 1870. By this firman, Bulgarian independent
Exarchate was created, which included Eastern Bulgaria, Dobrudja, Pirot and Niš in the west and one
Macedonian diocese (Veles). With regard to Bulgarian aspirations towards Macedonia as well as in
general with regard to Bulgarian demands concerning a creation of the Greater Bulgaria on the
Balkan Peninsula, the creation of Bulgarian Exarchate infused a tremendous impact on national
ideology of Bulgarian people who started to make a strength propaganda followed by political
actions with a purpose to put whole historical-geographic Macedonia under the jurisdiction of the
Exarchate. According to this propaganda and later political action, total area of Macedonia was seen
as a part of a united Bulgarian national church−Exarchate. Actually, creation of Bulgarian Exarchate
made a basic influential impact to Bulgarian nationalistic propaganda and work upon the area of
Macedonia, but at the same time it inspired severe disputes between Bulgarian, Albanian, Serbian
and Greek national claims over the same area of Macedonia.

39
Zlatarski V., Istoriя na bъlgarskata dъržava prez Srednite vekove. T.1 Pъrvo bъlgarsko carstvo, Ĉ.2 Ot slavяnizaciяta
na dъržavata do padaneto na Pъrvoto carstvo (852−1018), 2 izd. Sofiя 1971; Petrov, P., Obrazuvane i ukrepvane na
zapadnata Bъlgarska dъržava, Godišnik na Sofiйskiя universitet (FIF) LIII/2 (1959), pp.135−190.
40
“Information by the Byzantine writer Cecaumenus about the Bulgarians in Macedonia and about the Bulgarian tsars
Samuil and Ivan Vladislav”, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Macedonia. Documents and Material, Sofia, 1978, p. 27.
41
“Charters granted by the Byzantine Emperor Basil II to the Bulgarian Church after his conquest of Bulgaria”,
Bulgarian Academy of Science, Macedonia. Documents and Material, Sofia, 1978, p. 30.
42
“The Byzantine historian Scylitzes describes the uprising of the Bulgarians under the leadership of Peter Delyan”, p.
49, “The Byzantine historian Scylitzes describes the uprising of the Bulgarians under the leadership of Georgi Voyteh in
1072”, p. 53, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Macedonia. Documents and Material, Sofia, 1978.

12 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

 Side by side with a creation of Bulgarian Exarchate the attempt of Russian diplomacy to
establish a Greater Bulgaria in March 1878 became strongest basis and most influential impact to
Bulgarian “national and historical rights” at the Balkans. Russian-Ottoman War of 1877−1878 was
ended after the Russian spectacular military successes against the Ottoman army at the Balkan
battlefield by signing the “St. Stefano Peace Treaty” on February 19th/March 3rd, 1878. The crucial
point of this treaty was an establishment of an independent Bulgarian state which was designed by
St. Petersburg as a Russian client-state at the Balkan Peninsula. According to this Russian great
Bulgarian project, a whole Macedonia was included into St. Stefano Bulgaria. The borders of such
Bulgaria were drawn on the south - west beyond Debar, Ochrida, Kastoria, Korcha with entrance to
the Aegean Sea, but without Salonica. The whole course of the Vardar River would be in this case

included into Bulgarian state and in such a way, Bulgarian nationalistic dreams upon Macedonia
based on both historical and ethnolinguistic rights would be realized. An importance of St. Stefano
Bulgaria for Bulgarian nationalistic aspirations over Macedonia alongside with the creation of
Bulgarian Exarchate became in the recent future crucial and most influential for the very reason that
all Bulgarian plans to create united Bulgaria have been based on the Treaty of St. Stefano.
Serbian case
Serbian claims upon the destiny of Macedonia and her inhabitants have been radically
different in comparison to Bulgarian case for the reason that Serbian demands were mainly based on
“historical rights”, but not and/or ethnolinguistic once. Serbian political propaganda did not insist so

13 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

much upon “ethnic rights” upon Macedonia, while at the same time its “historical rights” have been
based exclusively on the mediaeval Serbian history when Serbian state reached a climax of its glory
during a short period of time known as the time of the Serbian Empire (from 1349 to 1371).43
Serbian abundance of their „ethnic rights” on the biggest part of Macedonia was based
primarily on scientific research done and works published by a leading Serbian 19th c. philologist -
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (1787−1864) who followed the main idea and principal of ethnic identity –
the language.44 The fact was that differences between literary Serbian and Bulgarian have not been
considerable, but they were very definite. We can consider that Macedonian dialect (speech) actually
is neither one nor the other; “but in certain structural it agrees rather with Bulgarian than with
Serbian”.45 Obviously the language of Macedonian Slavs was more similar with Bulgarian than with
Serbian one; the fact which was stressed by huge numbers of travelers, merchants, diplomats,
scientists, etc. who were passing throughout of Macedonia and left us their memoirs or other
observations referring to the land and inhabitants of Macedonia.
If we speak about Serbian “historical rights” upon Macedonia we have to stress in the first
place one fact in regard to Serbian propaganda activities. Namely, Serbia has taken much interest in
Macedonia later than Bulgaria. Up to the time of Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia &
Herzegovina in July 1878 the ambitions of Serbian state and its foreign policy were directed
primarily toward these two Ottoman provinces, but not toward Macedonia for the very reason that it
was accepted a fact that majority of Bosnian-Herzegovinian population have been the Serbs by both
ethnic origin and the language regardless on its confessional division (Orthodox, Catholics and
Muslims). However, after the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 (July 13th) Belgrade realized that Bosnia &
Herzegovina are for a longer period of time lost for a project to create a single national state of the
Serbs.46 For that reason, Belgrade have wished to repair its national failure from the years of Great
Eastern Crisis, 1875− 1878, but it was late concerning Macedonia as:
Bulgarians had already created their national church (from 1870);
the majority of Macedonian Slavs had already adhered to Bulgarian Exarchate; and
Bulgarian schools were firmly established and thoroughly popular on the soil of
Macedonia.
Finally, Serbia had suffered a disastrous military defeat at the River of Slivnica in Western
Bulgaria in 1885 at the hands of the Bulgarians,47 and her prestige in the Balkans became recovered
only in the year of 1913 after the Balkan Wars (1912−1913). All in all, Serbia‟s both official
propaganda and secret national work have been mainly directed to the areas of Bosnia &
Herzegovina (according to “ethnic” rights) before 1878, but after the Berlin Congress Serbia had
only chance to enlarge its territory towards the south (according to “historic” rights) by annexation of
Macedonia or (according to both “ethnic” and “historic” rights) by absorption of Kosovo &
Metochia, but surely not any more toward the west (Bosnia & Herzegovina).
Serbian requirements upon the territory of Macedonia based on the “historical rights” (i.e.,
the state rights) have been grounded on several historical facts coming from a national mediaeval

43
See: Стевановић М., Душаново царство, Београд: Књига-комерц, 2001.
44
Стефановић Караџић В., „Срби сви и свуда“, Ковчежић за историју, језик и обичаје Срба сва три закона, том
I, Беч, 1849; Sotirović B. V., Lingvistički model definisanja srpske nacije Vuka Stefanovića Karadžića i projekat Ilije
Garašanina o stvaranju lingvistički određene države Srba, Vilnius: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla, 2006.
45
Brailsford H. N., Macedonia. Its Races and their Future, New York, 1971, p. 101.
46
About the project see: Љушић Р., Књига о Начертанију, Београд: БИГЗ, 1993.
47
About Serbian-Bulgarian War of 1885−1886 see, for instance: Јовановић С., Српско-бугарски рат. Расправа из
дипломатске историје, Београд, 1901, and Миловановић М., Пловдивски преврат и српско-бугарски рат, Дело,
1902, књ. XXIV, Београд, pp. 5−21.

14 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

history likewise Bulgarian historical claims. For the first time in Serbian history a large part of
Macedonia was included into state borders of mediaeval Serbia in the year of 1382 when Serbian
king Milutin (1382−1321) occupied and annexed a northern portion of geographic-historic
Macedonia and proclaimed the city of Skopje for the new capital of Serbia. This military acquisition,

the largest one in Serbian history by that time, was approved by the Byzantine emperor in 1299 when
king Milutin married the Byzantine princess Simonida; a marriage which brought him annexed
portion of Macedonia as the dowry. A period of realm of Serbian emperor Stefan Dušan
(1331−1355) became the most important dealing with the “historical rights” of Serbian nationalistic
propaganda and work upon Macedonia. Namely, this ruler conquered a large portion of the
Byzantine Empire between the years from 1345 to 1348 and established the largest Serbian state in
whole Serbian history, which extended from the Rivers of Sava and Danube to the Gulf of Corinth
and from the River of Drina to the River of Mesta. At that time the whole of Macedonian territory
was under the borders of Serbian state (present days Vardar Macedonia, Pirin Macedonia and
Aegean Macedonia). A capital of the state continued to be the city of Skopje where three significant
political events occurred with reference to the Serbian mediaeval history. Namely, in Skopje in the
year of 1346 the Serbian Patriarchate was proclaimed, the Serbian ruler was crowned as the emperor
and the most important Serbian law-codex (Душанов законик) was announced by reading.48 These
facts were crucial ones for the future Serbian nationalistic propaganda: Skopje was a capital of the
glorious Serbian Empire where the ruler was crowned for emperor and where the supreme state law-

48
Јовић М., Радић К., Српске земље и владари, Крушевац, 1990, pp. 68−80.

15 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

codex is proclaimed. Moreover, the most extreme Serbian nationalistic wishes and intentions were
based on a recovering of the Serbian mediaeval empire in which Macedonia would be geographic,
political and cultural centre. It was printed in Belgrade, for instance, in 1873 historical-ethnological
map of all Serbian territories, drawn by Miloš Milojević, where Macedonia was appropriated to
Serbdom. Moreover, the map was followed by united coats of arms of all Serbian lands consisted 24
heraldic simbols, each of
them represented one
Serbian historic-
ethnolinguistic territory at
the Balkans. Among these
united coats of arms of all
Serbia there were heraldic
symbols of Albania and
Macedonia, as well.
Actually, all Yugoslav
lands and peoples have
been presented as Serbian
ones.49 The same
ideological principle of
combination of historical
and ethnolinguistic rights
was applied by Serbian
historian, ethnologist and
geographer, Vladimir
Karić50, in his famous
book Serbia. Description
of the land and people,
published in Belgrade in
1887. In this book he
presented an
ethnolinguistic map of
Serbdom which showed
that continental Istria, all
Dalmatia, Croatia,
Slavonia, Bosnia &
Herzegovina, more than
half of Vojvodina, Serbia
within the borders after
the Congress of Berlin in
1878, major part of
Montenegro, half of
Kosovo & Metochia and
more than half of Vardar
Macedonia were
populated exclusivly by
the ethnic Serbs. However, outmost western part of Macedonia, easternmost Montenegro, southeast
Raška/Sandžak, westernmost Metochia, easternmost Albania and westernmost Kosovo were ethnicly
49
Милојевић М., Историско-етнографскогеографска мапа Срба и Српских (југословенских) земаља у Турској и
Аустрији, Београд, 1873.
50
About Karić‟s work see, Цвијић Ј., Владимир Карић, и његов географски и национални рад, Београд, 1929.

16 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

mixed areas inhabited by both Serbs and Albanians.51 While the cities and lands around Ulcinj and
Scodra/Skadar/Scutari were ethnicly mixed, the city of Ohrid (Ochrida) was populated only by
Serbs. Present-day Greek (Aegean) Macedonia and the Vidin region in northwest Bulgaria were,
according to the author, ethnicly mixed territories, too.52 In sum, Karić understood all Štokavian
speaking population in the Balkans as ethnolinguistic Serbs, but differently to Karadžić, Karić
included main portion of Vardar Macedonia into Serbian ethnolinguistic space. Karić was surely
right claiming that 90% of citizens of Kingdom of Serbia were ethnic Serbs. He also claimed, based
on historical sources, that in the distinct past all Slavs - Czechs, Bulgarians, Russians, Poles, Slovaks
and Lusatian Serbs (Croats were not considered as a separate ethnicity) – were called Serbs by
ancient historians, i.e. that all modern Slavic nations are only Serbian tribes. Finally, he concluded
that 1/13 of all Slavs are today Serbs while only ¼ (23.6%) of all Serbs (7.256.000 including and all
Croats, Bosnian-Herzegovinian Muslims and Slavs from Montenegro) are living in independent
Kingdom of Serbia.53 What concerns Albanians in Serbia he pointed out that only a few “Arnauts”
lived in the region of Toplica having no their own villages but living mixed with the Serbs. They
came to this region only in the 18th c. after the Serbs emigrated from that place to the Habsburg
Monarchy.54 In addition, according to the author, there were 30.000 Serbs living in Albania proper,
“westward from the River of Black Drim”, and 200.000 of them in western Bulgaria.55
The area of Macedonia within Serbian national/nationalistic claims based on “historical
rights” was understood and weaved in the term of the “Ancient Serbia” together with Kosovo &
Metochija and Raška/Sandžak. In fact, originally under the term of “Ancient Serbia”, Kosovo &
Metochia were understood as the core of the mediaeval Serbian state with the capital of Prizren and
the headquarters of Serbian mediaeval church in Peć (Ipek). In every Serbian plans concerning the
national revival and re-establishment of Serbian state on historical basis the “Ancient Serbia” was
always taken into consideration. However, from the mid 19th c. under the term of “Ancient Serbia”
was understood and the area of Vardar Macedonia as a part of Serbian mediaeval state whose re-
establishment was the highest demand required by Serbian nationalists and their propaganda.
In Serbian case, the basis for national struggle for making united national state on the base
of either historical or ethnic, or both of them, rights was laid down by Ilija Garašanin, Serbia‟s
minister of the interior who wrote “Naĉertanije” (Draft) in 1844 which was actually the secret plan of
Serbian foreign policy in the future. Nevertheless that the term of Macedonia was not mentioned in
this work Serbian nationalists and designers of national foreign policy interpreted that it is very
possible to conclude that Macedonia was taken into consideration by Garašanin as well as. At least,
they interpreted this work as the message to the following generations of Serbian policy-makers that
the Serbs should continue the process of making the great Serbian united national state: the process
which started in the Middle Ages and became temporarily interrupted by the Turks.

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51
Карић В., Србија. Опис земље, народа и државе, Београд, 1887, colored map “Карта распрострањења Срба”, pp.
240−241.
52
Ibid., pp. 240−241.
53
Ibid., pp. 91−92, 242−243.
54
Ibid., p. 96.
55
Ibid., p. 243.

17 ©Vladislav B. Sotirović 2011. All rights reserved

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Clogg R., A Concise History of Greece, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992.
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